Salwa Judum ruling by Opp V-P pick aided Naxalism, says Shah

“Sudershan Reddy is the person who helped Naxalism. He delivered the Salwa Judum judgment. If that judgement had not been passed, Naxal terrorism would have ended by 2020,” Shah said, referring to the 2011 Supreme Court judgement during a Q&A session at the conclave.

During his five-year tenure in the SC, Justice Reddy heard several constitutional cases. In July 2011, in Nandini Sundar v. State of Chhattisgarh, Justice Reddy, along with Justice S S Nijjar, struck down the practice of Salwa Judum, where tribal youth were appointed as Special Police Officers for an honorarium to counter Naxal insurgency.

Shah said Kerala has faced the brunt of Naxalism. “People of Kerala will certainly see that the Congress party, under the pressure of Left parties, is fielding a candidate who supported Naxalism and used a pious forum like the Supreme Court,” the Home Minister said.

Shah also said: “In the country, Kerala has the highest literacy rate as well as the highest rate of unemployment. That’s because, given its geographical situation, Kerala got two advantages — tourism and foreign remittances from NRIs. Iss ke karan ek ajeeb prakar ki laziness yahan aa gayi (Because of this, a strange kind of laziness took root here). The people of Kerala want industries such as IT, semiconductors, ports.”

Shah responded to a question on the three Bills that propose the removal of ministers who are accused in serious cases and have been detained for at least 30 days.

“I have asked the people of the country in Parliament: do they want the Prime Minister to run government from jail? It is a question of morality,” he said.

“There was an instance of a CM running the government from jail. So, should the Constitution be amended or not?” Shah said, indicating that if Kejriwal had resigned after his arrest, these Bills would not have been introduced.

– with ENS inputs